The goal of my blog is to share the joy and love I have for unknown comics, animation and underground artists.
Today we are looking at "Video Girl Ai" by Masakazu Katsura and published in the United States by Animerica Extra / Viz Media.
The volume I bought is the only volume two for this series. This comic is a finished series and has fifteen volumes total. This manga was created in the late 80s and early 90s and gives off that vibe in many instances. This is a pretty decent manga for people who grew up in that era and remembers basic everyday electronics like VCRs and stereos. This comic will nostalgia punch you in the gut so fast that you would not even realize what happened.
The theme of this story is that Yota is the king of all losers at his school. It is played out interesting but you will notice that Yota is just a short little kid who looks average and has a heart of gold. I was very confused on how this kid was a loser but that is another topic for another day. So Yota finds a video rental store (yeah I heard those things existed at one point too) that he found because he has a pure heart. He is given a VHS tape (le gasp!) for free and once he pops the tape in his VCR, Ai comes out of the television. Ai is supposed to help him straighten out his life, find true love and find happiness. Yeah.. well Ai is difficult and she wants to find his happiness in her own way.
This is a love story and does the usually triangles upon triangles. It is a good series but the plot moves sorta slow and you will find yourself screaming at the book for the stupidity of Yota's decisions. The book does have nudity and it is the usually naked girl type nudity. I would refrain from reading this book in public settings.
The art work in this book is clearly in an 80s style. It never really changes but Katsura-san is great at drawing emotion and eyes. The story speaks volumes with just expressions alone. The background art is pretty decent and it is mostly just every day settings like schools and movie theaters. It is a very shonen styled and themed story but it is still a love story.
I finished this book and was interested in hunting down the rest but I didn't feel like I absolutely needed to. Sadly this book is no longer on the shelves at your book stores so you will have to hunt it down in other ways. The books are fairly cheap online and in used book stores. Animerica Extra / Viz media did finish the franchise but they are in the typical 90s book format and are a little bigger than your typical manga. The story is pretty good but it moves very slowly and Yota is a very forget-able main character in many ways. He has street fighter type hair though...
Score time:
Art: 4 / 10
Story: 5 / 10
Flow of book: 4
/ 10
Impression after reading: interested but not compelled
Reviewed and shared by Harry Kohles of Metairie, Louisiana. Former art student with a fetish for corny realism. Helping to share comics and mangas you never knew existed~
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